Heart-centered, mission-driven! Dad of 4 Daughters and Initiator of Men. My mission is to create a safe and healthy world by leading with consciousness, with vulnerability, and with grit. I have decades of experience helping men and women from diverse backgrounds and experiences do their personal growth and addiction recovery work.
MenLiving I am a long time MenLiving member and I also have the honor of serving on the Board of the Directors. For the past 2 years I have co-lead our annual MenLiving Men’s Retreat and occasionally lead the Monthly MenLiving Meetings. The connections with men in MenLiving are some of the most important relationships in my life!
Family For 15 years I have had the honor to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with an incredible woman and family physician on Chicago’s west side. We parent 4 amazing daughters age 3-13. They are by far my greatest teachers. Thanks to them I am in touch with my inner feminine. My role as their father has been to love, serve, teach, listen and hold space, and support them to live empowered lives as their inspired selves!
Men’s Work and Leadership Development I have over 20 years of leadership experience with the ManKind Project, an international men’s organization that fosters emotional literacy and personal missions for men. As a certified Co-Leader, I have led over 50 of the hallmark MKP offerings, The New Warrior Training Adventure, all over North America. As a Certified Leader-Trainer, I am also responsible for teaching and mentoring the next generation of MKP leaders.
Diversity and Inclusion I was fortunate to grow up in Hyde Park on Chicago’s south side and serve in the US Army, and as a result inter-cultural competency coaching is a strength of my leadership. I have mentored and facilitated many tough conversations on many multi-cultural topics, including workshops on Diversity and Inclusion, Homophobia and Sexism, Racism and Ableism, Power, Privilege and Difference. for men’s groups, and many public and private organizations and businesses. I recently earned in a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
Erik Treese – Leadership and Life Coach
US Army I served 4 years as a 101st Airborne paratrooper during Operation Desert Shield and Storm. Being a solider taught me the importance of physical and mental toughness, duty, mission, clear, and direct leadership, service, accountability, commitment, and teamwork. My military career was cut short due in large part due to alcohol and PTSD. While enlisted I was awarded a Combat Infantryman Badge, the Army Commendation Medal, a Humanitarian Service Ribbon, and a Liberation of Kuwait Ribbon.
Education Upon completion of my active duty enlistment I earned an Associates in Liberal Arts from the City Colleges of Chicago. From there I went on to graduate cum Laude from Northwestern University with a degree in Communications. I am few classes short of a master’s degree in Education from Northeastern Illinois University, and in April 2020 I completed a Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion from Cornell University.
Business Consulting I got a taste of corporate America dot-com boom during Y2K. I was a consultant with Diamond Technology Partners, a premier global management consulting firm based out of Chicago. I worked on a variety of large-scale technology projects with Enron, Blockbuster, and the Deluxe Checks Corporation. Currently I work with a medium size nationwide real estate construction and development company, a smaller sized foreclosure law firm based in Chicago, and a newly opened chiropractic practice.
Recovery Work My shadow mission is to create a world without broken homes and wounded children. My own addiction had a rough bottom that brought me to my knees and had me homeless on the streets of LA and Chicago. With over 20 years of experience in addiction recovery, I learned a lot about suffering and trauma, perseverance, failure and success, growth and healing, and spirituality. With a dozen years sober today, I truly live life one day at a time, I am active in several 12-Step programs, carry a message of hope, and bring the principles of recovery into my coaching practice.
